


Born a Hot White Diamond

by imadra_blue



Category: Final Fantasy IV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Canon - Video Game, Character Study, Drama, F/M, Includes Song Lyrics, M/M, Multi, One Shot, POV Third Person, Prose Poem, Romance, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-10 21:36:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/790419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imadra_blue/pseuds/imadra_blue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the other side of the looking glass, Kain became a White Mage and Rosa became a Dragoon, but Cecil remained a hot white diamond trapped inside black coal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Born a Hot White Diamond

**Author's Note:**

  * For [notraffic](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=notraffic).



> Notes: This is an alternate universe fic envisioning Rosa and Kain in switched roles, in every sense, and how this changes (and doesn't change) Cecil's story in _Final Fantasy IV_.
> 
> Credits: The title and the song lyrics in italics at the end are from "Glass (Two Suns)" by Bat for Lashes. References to to the song' symbolism appears throughout the fic.
> 
> _Prompt:  
>  Rosa and Kain character swap/Cecil (two-some, threesome, more-some if other characters come into it). Would love to see what would've happened if Rosa and Kain swapped places. Would love to work in lyrics: 'Born a hot white diamond/Burning through the rainbow'_

...

As a child, Cecil quickly came to understand the importance of fathers, even though he did not have one. That he lacked one was important, for it placed him in the King's care. He never faced the same choice that Kain and Rosa did, for the King gave commands, not choices. Kain and Rosa, however, faced the same choice as adolescence dawned upon them: to be a Dragoon or to be a White Mage. Their fathers shaped their choices, as surely as the sun set to let the moon rise.

Kain's anger at his father led him to become a White Mage. He could not forgive him for dying, for being strict, for not being the man Kain wanted him to be. So he donned the white robes and studied magic. Though he had the harsh, low voice of a warrior, his quiet manner suited the healing arts better than anyone expected. Learning to heal, to forgive, to protect, seemed to ease his anger towards his father and offer his heart peace.

Rosa's love for her father led her to be a Dragoon. Though her mother had been a White Mage, Rosa so admired the man that had given his life to defend Baron that she followed in his footsteps. So she donned her spiked armor and learned to wield a lance. Her bright smile protected her feelings as surely as her armor protected her flesh, and Cecil never knew if she truly enjoyed the path of a warrior. Her enemies fell before her just as quickly as Cecil's did.

Cecil trained as a Dark Knight, hoping he hid his doubts as well as Rosa hid her feelings. His own path, chosen for him by a man that was not his father but had raised him as if one, did nothing but unsettle him. Instead of dwelling on that which disturbed him, he focused on the paths his best friends took, his spear maiden and his glowering healer. They were two burning suns, and Cecil craved their light. He loved them both equally.

At least at first.

…

Perhaps it was the white magic that tipped the scales. The more he learned of his black blades and blacker deeds, the more Cecil took refuge in the halls of the White Mages, inundated with their healing arts. When he removed his foul armor and allow Kain to treat his bleeding wounds, Kain's gentle touch seemed to reach into Cecil's heart. Though white magic could be as harsh and unforgiving as black when casting Holy, it was not the unforgiving sort of magic that flowed from Kain. His Cure spells were light itself, offering respite from the wicked jaws that clamped shut over Cecil every time he donned his dark armor.

Cecil longed to feel the light. He needed to touch rainbows, all the shades of light. The longer he suffocated in darkness, the more he craved it. It was a craving Kain did not hesitate to offer. When Cecil asked, after the slide of Kain's long blond hair over the white of his robes had caught Cecil's eye once again, Kain responded by cupping his cheek and studying him with those piercing blue eyes.

"Yes," Kain whispered, pinning Cecil's wrists to the wall behind him, taking control with an assertiveness that belied how he almost took up his father's Dragoon lance. He kissed Cecil fiercely, his mouth wet and warm. That night, he was no healer, and his touch was strong, almost needy. But even then, hands and mouth unyielding, the light of his white magic suffused his touch. For a time, Cecil felt alive and pure. He burned hot and white until the next morning, when he slid the armor of the Dark Knight back on.

…

At first, Cecil did not understand the change that overcame Rosa as his relationship with Kain grew more intimate. He changed nothing of his behavior towards her, but everything had changed about her behavior towards him. She seemed as if permanently wounded, though Cecil had never known her to make much of an injury before. Once, a goblin had slashed her side open with its filthy blade, and she reacted only by leaping into the air so she could rain down upon it with the point of her lance and her own blood. He knew no other warrior as tough as she.

But this wound apparently festered, beyond the reach of Kain's healing touch. Her warm smiles faded away, and Cecil noticed she hid her light blond hair so it no longer escaped her helmet. She looked a reptile in battle now, all talons and cold-blooded ferocity. It did not occur to Cecil that she had loved him, too, until he saw her watching him and Kain through his bedroom window. Dressed in leathers, she had perched on a nearby parapet, gripping her lance with white knuckles. The moment she saw Cecil gazing back at her, she leapt down into the castle's dark courtyard, hidden from view. Without armor, she escaped without a sound.

Cecil did not tell Kain. He saw the way Kain gazed at Rosa sometimes, his dark blue eyes filled with inexplicable hunger, and did not want to risk losing both of them.

…

Though he had lost her at the Village of Mist, when Rosa reappeared, Cecil wished she had remained lost. She entered Fabul's Crystal Room, her Dragoon armor radiating nightmares. Her face seemed hidden behind a shadow. She took each step towards Cecil with a purpose that resounded with the sound of metal on glass, and her spear was without mercy. Cecil's guilt weighed him down as they fought. He had chosen only one friend as lover, but loved them both. Darkness slowed his blade and seemed to turn it back upon him. He choked inside his own black armor.

Golbez, clad in pitch armor not so dissimilar from Cecil's, that took Kain from him, while Rosa took Fabul's Air Crystal. As Cecil lay on the floor, useless, spent, he watched as the glittering rainbows cast by the crystal faded away.

…

It was the mirrored wall atop Mount Ordeals that gave Cecil the light he had always craved, stripping him of his dark armor and replacing it with one of light. He felt like a coal crushed to reveal a gleaming white diamond inside. He now knew his father, though he had never met him, was important, too. His father had offered him the choice of purifying himself in moonlight, of becoming the man he was always meant to be. He became Paladin, no longer Dark Knight, freed from the black armored prison of his youth.

But in that mirror, he saw another Cecil, one who made the same choice as he. It was his Kain and Rosa that were different. In that mirror, Kain wore the dragonscale armor and Rosa the white robes. It was Rosa who offered Cecil respite in that mirrored world, whose gentle, light-suffused touch made his life as a Dark Knight bearable, not Kain. In that world, Cecil loved her, and she, him. It was Kain who stood on the outside, alone—Kain who fell under Golbez's sway and defeated Cecil in Fabul. The other Cecil had to rescue Rosa, not Kain. Everything in that vision was broken, twisted, the inverse of Cecil's losses in his own world. The mirror's vision made his veins feel as running pure water, and he turned from the mirror, gripping the hilt of his new sword until his hand ached.

…

When Rosa reappeared with her ultimatum, her Dragoon armor black with Golbez's misdeeds, Cecil knew what to do. He would not leave anyone alone, on the outside, where they did not belong. He loved both Rosa and Kain equally, and they both belonged to him. Even though he has his own light now, he still craved the light both could offer. He knew Kain would accept her, for he loved Rosa, too. The three of them were meant to be together, on both sides of the mirror. This, Cecil knew without doubt. He extended his hand to her, his new armor glinting painfully bright as it reflected the light of the sun.

Armor rattling as she trembled, Rosa took his hand and told him where they held Kain hostage.

…

Kain did not question Rosa's loyalties, even after he had been freed from Golbez's trap. He only nodded and clasped both their hands. When Golbez told Cecil that they were brothers, both Kain and Rosa took his hands, gripping tightly.

After Kain rescued them all from the Tower of Zot, using Exit to warp them all to Baron, Cecil sat on his own bed to mourn. They had lost all the crystals, and even if Rosa was right about the Underworld's crystals, they had another long, hard journey stretching out before them—one that could lead Cecil to kill his own brother. Both Kain and Rosa seemed to know what he was thinking. They sat by him, pressed against him, silent, warm, their hearts beating in the same rhythm as Cecil's. Kain did not hesitate to welcome Rosa into their bed, and both offered Cecil a pleasant distraction from the daunting quest they faced. He burned hotter than ever under their touch.

When spent, the three of them lay upon the bed in a tangle of limbs. Kain and Rosa quickly fell asleep on either side of Cecil, their heads resting on his chest close enough that their hair mingled, gold against light blond. Cecil closed his eyes, but sleep did not claim him as easily as it had his two lovers. He opened his eyes to find that the moonlight streaming through window had set Kain's and Rosa's hair aglow. Cecil smiled, the light offering an echoed song in his mind, words that held meaning he could not fully understand, but somehow comforted him.

_Born a hot white diamond, burning through the rainbow._

Cecil closed his eyes his eyes again, as sleep finally sought to capture them. The light's song still echoed as he drifted away to dream of Kain and Rosa as two suns shining upon his glass moon.


End file.
